Satan’s ‘Sifting’ of Peter: Five Insights

The metaphor of sifting wheat to describe a tempting or testing by the devil invites images of being pushed through a sieve or broken down into pieces. When divided into individual lines, the passage in which Jesus foretells Peter’s denial (Luke 22:31-34) is rich in spiritual insights.

Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat.

Satan has been granted the ability to approach God and request the permission to test us. This is why we pray “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, which is more accurately translated, “Do not subject us to testing, but deliver us from the evil one.” When Satan asks permission to test us, we ask God to deny his request which he may or may not do. Either way, God is in full control.

The Cynical ‘Unborn Victims of Violence Act’

The federal statute also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law”, named after Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner who were murdered on Christmas Eve in 2002 by her husband Scott, considers any harm to an unborn child at any stage of development to be a crime if it occurs during the breaking of a federal law. It clearly defines the unborn as possessing human rights:

As used in this section, the term ‘unborn child’ means a child in utero, and the term ‘child in utero’ or ‘child, who is in utero’ means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.’’ (Sec. 1841).

But the statute is grossly misnamed because it actually promotes exponentially more violence against “unborn victims” than it prevents:

Is Artificial Intelligence a Digital Antichrist?

With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.

…Elon Musk (link)

A recent article on artificial intelligence (AI) by a local Bay Area tech reporter pointed out that four months ago the subject was only occasionally newsworthy. But after the release of the program ChatGPT by San Francisco startup OpenAI, concerns about the technology are being voiced daily. Its rapid advance reminds me of the Latin maxim, modus in fine velocior, “things speed-up toward their end”. One Venture Capitalist warned,

This is a society-changing species-changing event. I’m excited by this technology but the downsides are so immense. We’ve unleashed forces that we don’t understand.

An engineering professor from Stanford told the reporter,

This technology is not being driven by research scientists; it’s being driven by for-profit companies. If the hair is not standing up on the back of your neck after looking at this thing, you don’t understand what just happened. …Morals and ethics are not on the top of the list. …[W]here’s this stuff going to be in ten years?

Inching Toward a Dangerous Threshold

In the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision, churches have been increasingly the targets of desecration, vandalism, and arson. In response, the USCCB recently sent a letter to congress asking for an increase in funding for a program that offers security for religious institutions:

These are not mere property crimes – this is the degradation of visible representations of our Catholic faith. These are acts of hate.

How to Cope with Persecution: 5 Precepts from St. Peter

A recent report warned that Christianophobia is on the rise:

[T]he wave of violence, sacrilege, and desecration of Catholic churches in the USA and Latin American countries has not abated. Omertà, i.e. the code of silence, connivance, and complicity on the part of governments and the national and international mass media show just how violent anti-Christianity is becoming. … With the Eucharistic Christ struck down and His Mother Mary beheaded, what will happen to Christians? Let’s be prepared…

In the first epistle of St. Peter, the apostle addresses the experience of unjust suffering as a follower of Christ. He first urges a focus on hope, the anticipation of our future reward in heaven:

Light in a World of Darkness

Jesus taught His followers that they should be prepared to experience one of two things: oppression or empathy. He explains this to the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus under the cover of night to question Him. The reference here to the light is a reference to Jesus Himself:

Troubling Consequenses of Notre Dame

From the air it looked like a giant burning cross.

What was striking in the fire’s aftermath is that whenever a commentator brought up the dramatic rise in attacks on churches in France they were quickly silenced by the government and the press.

Churches in France are being vandalized, ransacked, and desecrated (and burned) at the rate of about three per day and local police rarely conduct investigations.

In light of my understanding of St. Hildegard’s prophetic visions of the last days, the fire was a clear sign from God that the persecutions of the Church as described in her vision of the Grey Wolf are commencing.

Five Reasons to Proclaim Christian Truths Fearlessly

 

Emperor Nero used Christians as torches

Author Saul Bellow once wrote that he would occasionally attend a dinner party and would be asked for his opinion on a politically sensitive issue. His standard answer was non-confrontational: “I support all good policies and oppose all the bad ones.”

While the arrogance and moral bankruptcy behind political correctness will eventually lead to its own destruction, the current emerging generation of social engineers are becoming a serious danger to those who publicly proclaim basic Christian truths. Jesus demands, however, that we speak the truth, and courageously.

Breaking down Matthew 10:24-31, Jesus gives five reasons to speak confidently and without fear in the face of opposition:

Has Pope Leo XIII’s 100-Year Vision Reached its Terminus?

Pope Leo XIII

This highly credible prophecy from around 1884 was a revelation to Pope Leo that God would be agreeing to a frightening request from Satan:

“Grant me one century and more power of those who will serve me, and I will destroy it [the Church].”

One can try to ascertain when the 100-year period began by looking for possible watershed events that tipped the Church into the trend of decline that persisted throughout most of the 20th-century. Conversely, one can look for the opposite as well, events suggesting that the deterioration in the Catholic Church that’s been evident for generations might have been reversed. Archbishop Vigano’s recent exposure of the corruption in the Church and the naming of authorities at the top of the Church hierarchy may have represented the latter.

Over at the Remnant, Christopher Ferrara draws a conclusion that is shared by many:

“I believe that Archbishop Viganò’s precious testimony is a sign that Heaven itself is now responding to the “need for justice” in the Church.  Whether or not justice involves the resignation of the most wayward Pope in Church history, the inevitable season of justice will culminate in the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Church’s restoration. This will be a final victory over the enemies within and their apologists.”

Why Social Engineering is Intensifying in the U.S.

Future historians analyzing our recent history will notice that Western leaders of the 1990s and after (e.g. Clinton, Blair, Cameron, et al.) reflected a major shift away from their predecessors on moral questions. There was still a shared acknowledgement of the Judeo-Christian foundations of the West, but it obviously had become less of a guide for positions on moral issues. What social historians in particular might note is that these government administrators were the first generation of graduates that were educated in institutions saturated with the phenomenon known as political correctness. Students in the major universities from about 1970 on were being increasingly indoctrinated as to what were the acceptable opinions on race relations, sexuality, homosexuality, cultural values, etc. This was exposed by University of Chicago professor Allen Bloom in his widely-read 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind.

Compare the moral outlooks of two contemporaries, Barack Obama and David Cameron, with two other contemporaries, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Can you picture the latter two defending the government’s attempt to impose a legal right for transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their new sexual identity? One can imagine hearing Thatcher’s response to the notion —  “preposterous!”. There is a precise reason behind why we are seeing the social engineers of today intensify the force of their efforts to impose their agenda on American society and why it will continue to increase in severity.